Hamilton College's Margaret Gabriel '16 scored four goals and the nationally ranked No. 7 Continentals breezed to a 12-6 NESCAC win against the Connecticut College Camels at Connecticut College's Artificial Turf at Silfen Field on Saturday afternoon.
Box Score
Hamilton (11-3, 7-3 NESCAC) scored the first four goals and led 9-3 at the half. The Continentals sit in fourth place in the NESCAC standings with no conference games left on their schedule. Hamilton needs Bowdoin College to win at Tufts University on Wednesday night in order to host a NESCAC Championship quarterfinal on Saturday, April 25.
Gabriel, who has 15 goals, added two ground balls, two draw controls and two caused turnovers for the Continentals. Nora Klemmer '17 chipped in two goals and an assist and Taylor Ryan '17 and Ashleigh Stephan '15 scored two goals apiece. Stephan scooped up four ground balls and caused two turnovers. Darby Philbrick '18 tallied her 10th goal and Hattie Duke '18 notched her third. Hannah Rubin '17 made four saves in 51-plus minutes and Kari Koga '15 finished the game and stopped one shot.
Meag Irvine '15 and Heidi Halsted '15 scored two goals apiece for the Camels (4-10, 1-8). Halsted was credited with two ground balls and two caused turnovers. Cecily Cushman '15 and Mackenzie Axelson added one goal each, and Madison Barker led all players with six draw controls. Meg Raskin '18 turned away seven shots in 49-plus minutes and Megan Mullin made one save in 10:18 of relief.
The Continentals jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first 12 minutes. Klemmer assisted Stephan for a goal and capped the run with 18:06 to go. Hannah Donegan made a nice feed to Irvine out in front of the cage for a quick one-timer for the Camels first goal with 16:51 left in the half. Hamilton's Ryan scored two of the next four goals and the Continentals carried a 9-3 advantage into the break.
The Camels clamped down on defense in the second half and when Cushman rifled a free-position shot into the back of the net with 16:16 left, the Camels were within 9-4. Hamilton pushed the lead back to seven goals at 11-4 after Gabriel netted her third of the day with 8:26 remaining.
Halsted and Irvine provided the home crowd with a nice boost late in the second stanza when they scored goals and closed the gap to 11-6. Gabriel closed out the victory on her fourth goal with 20 seconds remaining.
Hamilton enjoyed a 31-14 shot advantage and picked up 14 ground balls to just four for Connecticut Coll. Both teams won 10 draws. The Continentals have won seven straight games against the Camels.
Hamilton travels to Ithaca College for a non-conference game on Tuesday, April 21, at 5 p.m.
